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That's very true. The Veritaserum thing too -- I forgot about that. Ta for that, Carole. But how would you get fingerprints to come up without DNA? Like, in the Muggle world, there would be a database system for fingerprints, so would they have something similar? And in the Muggle world, your fingerprints are only on the system if you commit a crime or whatever (I know there are other reasons but I can't be bothered to list them) so how would it work in the Wizarding world?

EDIT: Gah, Nargles are driving me insane! This post is #3, after my original post with the TQs and Carole's post.

Would they have Muggle forensic science in the Wizarding world?
Not really. I think you could have them casting something to make fingerprints show up, but they have methods of getting the truth out of people.

If no, do you think that there is a Wizarding equivalent?
See below ...

And if no to the above two questions, how on earth do they solve murders and stuff?

They can use Veritaserum, extract memories, or use Legilimency. Only the really skilled would be unable to resist. That's if they have a suspect, of course. If they have no idea, then I think old-fashioned investigation would be used.

That's very true. The Veritaserum thing too -- I forgot about that. Ta for that, Carole. But how would you get fingerprints to come up without DNA?

Fingerprints have nothing to do with DNA. It's a matter of matching the patterns of the whorls on a person's fingertips. Before we had computers and databases, we used to take a suspects prints and see if they matched the prints found at the scene of the crime.

I think it would have to work the same as the Muggle world, that you can only take fingerprints if the person is a suspect. Although, the magical world isn't always the fairest. They 'try' Harry in front of a full court.

Would they have Muggle forensic science in the Wizarding world?
Absolutely not, for two reasons:
A) Most of the procedures we know from the Muggle world seem unnecessarily inconvenient for wizards.
B) To me, the Wizarding World appears to be almost completely deprived of natural sciences; there is simply no need for them (and the laws of nature as we know them don't always apply or at least can be nullified through magic. Just think of flying, floating objects, the time-turner and so on.) So even if maybe some methods in Muggle-forensics would be helpful for them, they might not be skilled enough to use it, as they haven't done scientific work/research as we know it ever before. However, I agree that they approach wizarding disciplines in an academic, even scientific manner, since we do know that it is possible to invent new spells or potions.

If no, do you think that there is a Wizarding equivalent?
I actually find it very likely. They do have hearings and in many cases are able to force the truth out of people (Veritaserum, extracting memories etc.), but that won't do any good in cases without suspects or witnesses. How would they find out if someone killed themselves or was killed by an unknown wizard? Since the only two people involved are either dead or unknown, investigating the crime scene would be the only source of information.

And if no to the above two questions, how on earth do they solve murders and stuff?
I personally like the idea of magic leaving traces, either permanently or for a certain amount of time. Like a spell you would cast to see if magic has been used in that room before. I imagine it like wads of smoke in different colours depending on the type of magic and varying in intensity depending on how much time has passed. (There might be hints (or proof?) for that in the books, but maybe I'm mistaking it for some other story...)

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Quote=eevaa "I personally like the idea of magic leaving traces, either permanently or for a certain amount of time."
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Oh! Oh! Oh! Magic does leave traces. (You aren't confused.) Dumbledore says so in HBP. That's how come he can find the door and the boat and everything in the lake. But I don't know whether very many people can detect that or who can detect that and whatnot. I think there's a thread on that somewhere around here. I think he's the only one we hear about who does that, though.